Blame
by Hopeakaarme
Summary: Eiji supposes he can only blame himself for Oishi going to Gakuto, but he'd much rather not. Shounen ai OishiGakuto, onesided Golden Pair.


Disclaimer: I don't own the characters. Konomi Takeshi does. I'm merely playing with them for the moment.

A/N: Who's to say Oishi cannot like any other acrobatic redheads besides Eiji? (Well, besides Eiji, obviously

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Blame

In the end, Eiji supposed he was the one to blame.

If he'd been more stubborn and, well, more selfish back when he was in the middle of the picture, he probably could have prevented all the bad stuff from happening. The bad stuff for him, in any case. As it was, he'd been careless in such a ridiculous manner that Tezuka would probably never speak to him again, taking his most precious thing for granted. And, as he'd come to learn, taking something for granted usually meant risking losing it.

Of course, there had been some circumstances he couldn't have helped, like Oishi's parents demanding him to go to a "better" school so he could eventually get to a good medical school and become a doctor. Eiji hadn't thought so much of it at the time, because Oishi was Oishi no matter what he did or where he went, but perhaps he should have made more of an argument against it. He probably couldn't have stopped Oishi from changing schools, but at least he could have made his opinion known. At least he could have done more to stay in contact, he could have made sure Oishi wouldn't forget about him all that easily.

Well, of course Oishi hadn't forgotten about him, not like that. Nobody could forget the great Kikumaru-sama. And perhaps, he found himself thinking, that had been the exact problem. Oishi hadn't forgotten about him, but rather Oishi had been missing him; of course they'd still met from time to time but then they'd both gotten busy and somehow things had just… slipped.

He could have paid more attention, though. He could have remembered that Oishi was a doubles player no matter what. He could have thought of who Oishi would play with now that they were in different schools.

Given that he hadn't, he really had only had himself to blame for the shock as he'd first heard just who he was playing against when they first went against Hyoutei High. Oishi could have told him, yes, but then how would he have reacted? Probably not any better than the tantrum he nearly threw in the middle of the courts, of all things. Mukahi had certainly had a lot of fun with that. Then again, Mukahi would. It wasn't like he was the one who had just lost his partner to his worst enemy.

Oishi had tried to explain, of course, pointed out that with Oshitari going for a study exchange they had both been short of a doubles partner, apologized for not telling and been really nice about it. Eiji had not taken it too well. He'd taken it so badly, in fact, that when Oishi finally just seemed to give up he hadn't been exactly surprised. And it was all his own damn fault, too.

Perhaps he could have still fixed it by then, if only he'd acted more maturely, if he hadn't let his own grudges and jealousy get in the way of his affection for Oishi. However, he'd been childish and selfish, acting as though Oishi had betrayed him completely, pushing him away when in reality he'd only wanted to latch on and cling to him. And, of course, the results were rather… predictable. Oishi could be stubborn when he wanted, and damn scary when he got mad, but sometimes he really was just too much of a pushover especially for pretty cranky redheads with a tendency to be possessive. Obviously, if Eiji wasn't there to push him in the right direction, someone else would. And that someone else would only choose the direction they thought was right.

He'd blamed it simply on Mukahi being evil, of course. Obviously Mukahi was only doing it to spite him, nothing else could explain it, the redheaded little bitch had just been jealous of what he and Oishi had and had taken the first possible opportunity to get between them. Not for a moment had he thought there could be any true affection between them, at least not from his rival; Oishi was so nice he probably had just been misguided by Mukahi's manipulation but it had to be one-sided because Mukahi was just that evil.

After getting over the worst of his shock he'd tried to fix things, to snatch Oishi back to himself no matter what Mukahi was up to. He tried to get Oishi back, tried as hard as he could what with them being in different schools and all, called him and met up with him and dragged him off to the street courts all the time. And as he spent time with Oishi one thing became hopelessly clear: Oishi liked Mukahi. Sure, he sometimes was rather exasperated at Mukahi's antics, but just as often he was laughing fondly as he mentioned Mukahi's nigh-obsession with light weight or smiling in that special little way that had used to be reserved just for Eiji and nobody else. It hurt, seeing those smiles and hearing the laughter, and at those moments Eiji found himself hating Mukahi more than ever before. So what if the little bitch upstaged him in acrobatics; that was far less of a crime than stealing away his very own Oishi.

And stealing away it was, much though he hated to admit it. Though Eiji did try his best Oishi had much less time for him nowadays, there was always practice this and team meeting that and oh he'd love to but he'd already promised Gakuto, and sometimes even when Eiji got Oishi all to himself he almost got the impression his dear egghead would rather have been somewhere else. Of course it wasn't true, that was just unthinkable after all, but sometimes it just… seemed like it. Horrifying, that. Just how tight was Mukahi's pretty little grip on what was rightfully Eiji's?

He avoided seeing the two together as long as he could, of course. He had done his best never to have to see Oishi spend a moment with that traitorous little bitch who wasn't even good at acrobatics. Finally, though, it was their school against Hyoutei, and by some stroke of luck they weren't against each other but it was still almost as bad. Oishi gave him a sad glance as Atobe shook their captain's hand, of course Atobe would be the captain he wouldn't accept anything else even as a first year, and Eiji found his hands clenching into fists so tightly his knuckles turned white.

Eiji had little memory of his own match that day. He supposed he had played, he must have had played because others told him so, but there was really only one match he could remember. He watched that match somewhat grudgingly, dragged along by his team mates, though he'd have much rather just run away. With Inui's hand holding onto his arm to stop him from fleeing, he could do little but sit there and watch. And… it felt good to see Oishi playing for real again.

Oishi was the same as ever, he noted, calmly keeping track of everything that happened on the court, staying in control even as others didn't realize he was actually leading the flow. It made Eiji feel nauseous to see just how well Mukahi seemed to fit in, though, flipping and jumping at the net just like Eiji himself had done, how dare Mukahi not only steal his doubles partner but their game together, too.

He somehow managed to make it through the match. He didn't enjoy it, but he did make it through. Hyoutei High won the match, of course they won, nothing could beat the Golden Pair's game style after all even if one half of it was a poor fake. Eiji jumped up as soon as Inui let go of him, all but running away from the stands, not wanting to see any more of the travesty that was Oishi playing for Hyoutei, Oishi playing with anyone but him, Oishi's hand being insistently tugged at by someone who wasn't him and another red head leaning momentarily against his shoulder as the two sat down on the other side of the stands.

He supposed he was the one to blame, in the end, but he'd much rather blame Mukahi.


End file.
